


Rescue

by Zekora



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Animal Death, Blood, Body Horror, Gen, Kinda, OOC character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3174386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zekora/pseuds/Zekora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feferi visits some manatees she made friends with, only to discover that the pregnant one has been severely injured and she must rescue the calf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a drabble I wrote for a friend's headcannon. Please let me know how I can improve it.

The pen was in the shallows of her world, so it would take some time to swim out to see them, but Feferi didn’t mind. In her personal consideration, visiting them was the highlight of her day. The swim was dangerous, because landdwellers often took their motorized ships out, rotating propulsion devices slicing huge scars in the water, and in her if she wasn’t cautious. Many landdwellers had received her rage after cutting too close to her or one of her many pets.

She dove into the deeps where nothing moved but the profoundest of creatures and swam as quickly as she could, hair streaming behind her in the bubbles kicked up by her movements. She had discovered that, down here, nothing hindered her on her way to see her delightful friends. Her mind was captured by the thought of the largest one, hugely round with her calf. The calf should be due any time now. Perhaps today would be the lucky day, and she would get to be there for the baby’s birth.

The water warmed as she reached the shallows, light filtering through it and glimmering on her jewelry. The current slowed, and she could see her pets from here, the pen she had lovingly crafted doing nothing to keep them, serving more as a decoration. Long grasses swirled through the driftwood bars, some strands being absently nibbled by her friends. Five fat, grey creatures meandered slowly through the water, movements slow and lazy, mostly brushing against each other in search of the tastiest vegetation. Long bodies ended in wide tails, two stubby flippers pushing out on each side, and wrinkled snouts snuffled and squeaked between mouthfuls.

The sixth drifted weakly away from the others, pregnant body swollen hugely. Feferi swam over to see her, smiling happily. Her smile fell away, however, when she reached the manatee. The creature’s body was laced with long gashes, circular scars bleeding slowly into the water. Rage simmered under Feferi’s skin, but there was a more pressing matter. The calf was not born yet, and, left within its dying mother, the calf would not survive. Feferi had seen manatees have calves before, and she knew that this calf was mature enough to survive on its own. Determined, she equipped her trident.

Gritting her teeth, she quickly culled the mother so it would not feel the pain she would have to inflict to save the calf. The calf was hers now, her responsibility. Blood clouded the water around the drifting body, and Feferi groaned in exasperation. This task was challenging enough without anything obscuring her vision. She made a quick slice into the mother’s abdomen, sliding her hands into the incision.

A mass pressed against her hand, warm and slick, but alive. Entrails spilled into the water as Feferi searched to bring the mother’s womb to the incision she had made. Layers of fat and tissue separated the calf from the world outside of its mother’s body. Feferi worked quickly to remove the excess fat and tissue, spilling it into the water. When she reached the womb, she could see the shape of the calf under the thin tissue. Its body was large and looked well-developed, but it was clearly stressed, contorting weakly in search of air that it was no longer receiving from its mother. Feferi carefully slit the womb open, releasing a gush of fluid. She pulled the calf free from the torn skin and out of the mother, then sliced the cord connecting the living calf to the dead mother.

She put her trident back into her sylladex, and, holding the calf in her arms, swam to the surface. When the calf’s nose broke the water into the warm night, it took a huge breath, and Feferi sighed in relief. The calf squirmed in her arms, pressing into her chest in search of milk.  
Unsure of how to procure milk for the baby calf, Feferi reached out to Sollux.

\-- cuttlefishCuller [CC] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]—

  
CC: )(ey Sollux! Boy do I ever )(ave a question for you!

TA: what ii2 iit?

CC: Well I )(ave a baby manatee )(ere and I )(ad to cull its mother…

TA: and?

CC: I was wondering if you could write a code for a card so t)(at I could get it some milk?

TA: no way. iim not helpiing you keep another 2eabeast a2 a pet.

CC: Why not?

TA: you have enough pet2. ju2t leave the baby whatever and play wiith 2ome of your fii2h.

CC: But it’ll DI----E if I leave it! 38(

TA: 2o?

CC: FIN—E! But don’t be surprised if you start )(earing its g)(ost following you around!

TA: 2iigh

TA: fiine. Iill wriite you a 2tupiid code for milk.

CC: T)(ANK YOU SO MUC)(! 38D

TA: giive me a few miinute2.

  
\-- twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]

 

Days later, Feferi made the same swim out to the shallows. The calf waited patiently for her by the pen. She pulled a large bottle of milk from her sylladex, now full of bottles of alchemized milk, and held it out to the calf, who nosed it appreciatively and swam into her arms. The calf nibbled at the tip of the bottle, then began happily nursing from the milk, squeaking between mouthfuls.

Feferi had been coming to the shallows several times a day to feed the calf, and had even coaxed Eridan to do the same a few times. He had initially been so infuriated by the notion that landdwellers and their motorized ships being responsible for the death of the calf’s mother that he hadn’t been interested in feeding it, and insisted on hunting down the responsible party, but Feferi assured him that there would be time for that after the calf had been fed.

The calf finished the bottle and nuzzled contently against Feferi’s chest, squeaking and snuffling happily before swimming off into the tall grasses with its family.  
Feferi smiled at the manatees, and, turning, began the long swim home.


End file.
